St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-06-02

carriages in Central Park, and are in
better financial condition than many
of those from whom they receive gra-
tuities. If it be said that these SER
wants cannot live on $25 or $50 a
month and hence are objects of chart
ty, the answer is, that thousands OF
deserving men and women all around
us are receiving less. If these able
bodied table servants cannot live on
their legitimate pay, they should seek
other employment, and not be hourly
seeking aims.
That the practice we are considering
is detrimental to the interest of en-
ployers is demOnstrable, in fact, is con-
coded by managers of hotels and res
taurants themselves. In collision with
cooks, walters will often serve extra
portions, or extra large portions, in ex-
pectatiOn of thereby establishing q
claim on the liberality of the guest
They thus rob their employer by serv-
ing what is not paid for, in order tO
make profit for themselves. At hotels
conducted on the American plan they
increase enormously the waste of food,
by bringing guests more than they
have ordered. Much good food is
wasted at large American hotel, and
this waste is doubled by the tipping
swindle. But the proprietOrs of ho-
tells say they are pOwerless to get rid
of the evil. When it was suggested to
the manager of one of the principal
hotels of New York that it would be
thousands of dollars in his pocket if he
should declare war upon the growing
abuse, and put an end to the robbery
of his patrons, he replied at can't be
done | should lose two months bust
ness if | attempted it," In explana-
ton he said that his help would all i'm
medately leave him that he could
not keep a bell-bOy or a chambermaid;
and that it would take two months to
get together servants that might stay,
upon paying higher wages than other
hotels were paying. Thus, then, this
organized evil has introduced reign
of terror; it's systematized tyranny
cannot be resisted by those whose in
terest it is to escape from it's control.
If this be true, is it not high time that
this plundering servants boycott should
be terminated =?
But the weightiest objections to this
system remain to be stated. The ''tip-
pees," or persons receiving these I'M
earned gratuities, are debased and de-
moralized by the irrational usage. The
best way found, since the world be-
gan, to get money, is to earn 1T. But
if an able bodied man can get a halt
dollar by standing around opera
houses, and opening the doors of gen
tlemen's carriages, they will not work
Il halliday for the same sum. A lackey
will not toll an hour for a quarter of a
dollar, if he can get as much by hand
ing fop a match or tooth pick.
Hard work is precisely what the pro-
fessiOnal tip-hunters have All aversion
to their repugnance to labor increases
with the increase of their easily gotten
gratuities. Nor will they strive to
please, if tip must follow whether
they please or not. By placing them
selves i'm the attitude of mendicants
they lose their self-respect. A distaste
for all work which brings in gains
slowly soon follows. The real working
classes are, hence, constantly depict
ed and the class of light workers re =,
enforce d by the indOlen5 and thought
less, who are deluded with visions of
sudden riches and rapid gains.
The question of feeling de
serves serious and dignified discussion;
it rises to the height of an economic
problem worthy of our most thought
full attention. Since the evil has not
yet spread far beyond the large cities
and summer resorts, it may be check
ed, if all who are opposed to the impo-
sitiOn on principle will firmly refuse to
submit to it, and will do what they
can to create, or rather strengthen,
public sentiment against it. If not
checked when it may be, where will it
end ? 1t will come to this, that street
car conductors must be tipped, else
they will land you in the mud, or not
land you at all; gatemen on the ele-
waited roads must be remembered" or
they will shut you in the cars or lock
you out; every clerk in the stores, from
whom you buy tin pan or yard OF
gingham, must be treated "handsOme-
ly," or you will find yourself contempt
uOusly snubbed and, as in London,
every policeman of whom you ask your
way must have q coin pressed to his
palm, else he will purposely lead yon
astray. These and other classes of
persons have as good right to expect
gratuities as have those we now re-
ward for less valuable services. LOgi-
cally, there is no place to stop between
paying twice for all services, and pay
ing twice for none. The lofty and tru
ly grand style of feeling servants is
that adopted by the Boston defaulter
of the other day, who proudly handed
five dollars to the waiter who brought
him spoonful of absinthe, or "a finger
bowl. Having stolen half Il million,
there seemed to be no reason why he
should not be liberal with other peo
ple's money, and squander it on har-
lots and menials.
We commend the Boston style to all
spendthrifts, because it impresses wait
ers profoundly, and this seems to be
the chief object of the tip. The wait
er's unqualified admiration cannot be
had Oh any lower terms for all largess
dispensers should know that a super
ciliOus servant who has once received
a fvedOllar gratuity must consider
dollar and half-dOllar tips small and
mean. He must draw the line some
where. But had not practical Ameri-
cans better draw the line on business
basis, and pay only for what they get I?
A Bullet in the Brain.--A Triumph for
Surgery.
A very neat surgeons job has been
performed on Col. Henry Pickens of
Lexington, KY, who got Union bull
let in his brain at Gettysburg and has
carried it until recently. 1t has given
him much pain of latel years. About
two months ago he was in New York
walking along the street leaning on
his cane, when he fell heavily to the
walk, striking his forehead and stun
ming him. The ambulance was sum-
mOned and he was taken to Bellevue
hospital, registered as unknown"